Don't Die, Butterfly
by Baby Hedgehog-Cute but DEADLY
Summary: "Hey, guys, Snowflake here. Um... I know this is after my normal broadcasting time, but I'm in a bit of trouble. See, I woke up in this gas station and there's a whole bunch of zombies surrounding the cashier counter where I fell asleep. I can't get out, and I'm outta food. My daggers are useless because they just grab me if I get too close..."


**Hey, guys! First oneshot of the summer! :D I had this almost completely finished, and I would have posted it _weeks_ ago, before school even ended, but my computer crashed and I never got around to rewriting it until now. **

* * *

**Inspired by:** _'Astronaut'_ by Simple Plan and the first episode of _Z Nation._

* * *

"Hey, guys, Snowflake here. Um... I know this is after my normal broadcasting time, but I'm in a bit of trouble. See, I woke up in this gas station and there's a whole bunch of zombies surrounding the cashier counter where I fell asleep. I can't get out, and I'm outta food. My daggers are useless because they'll just grab me if I get too close..."

Kim warily looks up at the eight snarling faces surrounding her. Their arms reach as far as they possibly can through the bars, fingers gnarled into claws. All reaching for her.

She might actually die here.

The realization hits her like a bucket of cold water. She might _die_ here. After everything she's been through, she's going to die alone behind a freaking cash register.

She chuckles weakly, trying to keep the renewed fear out her voice but failing miserably. "I'm r-really s-screwed over, aren't I? Th-these zombies-s just wish they c-could hav-ve a piece'a th-this ass. W-Well, until n-next time... if th-there is a n-next time... don't d-die, butterf-fly."

* * *

 _Can anybody hear me?_  
 _Or am I talking to myself?_

* * *

Tears start streaming down her face. Can anyone even hear her? Her little radio station had first started out as an attempt to contact other survivors. After months of "hello? Is anyone out there?" she'd decided that there were people out there, but they just couldn't communicate. Even if they couldn't talk to her, it was her responsibility to give them hope and uplifting messages. Thus, the creation of her radio personality "Snowflake," the host of Z Survivor Radio.

As a kid, she'd always wanted to host her own radio station, and figured this was her chance. There's no one to tell her exactly what she should broadcast, so she does a little bit of everything. Her "air time" is from eight a.m. to three p.m., and she could tell time thanks to access to her phone (which had survived the years because of a portable solar charger her dad once gave her for her birthday).

Most of what her "listeners" hear is her singing. Before she'd found the Tower, Kim went from house to house, raiding its supplies. She'd entered a bedroom one time, one that looked like a teenage girl's, and found two "Song Books." It seemed like Ally, the owner of the books, was really into music; in them were songs, ones by famous celebrities and others that appeared to be original.

The books appeared to double as diaries for Ally, whoever this girl was. There were stories from her life in them, daily but minor troubles that Kim would give anything to be experiencing right now; anything is better than this life she's living. (Kim tried not to read them; the girl deserved her privacy).

Anyway, Kim recognizes most of the songs in the books. Ally has quite a diverse selection, and Kim at times sings and plays them for the station on her little ukelele. She'd gotten it from a nearby music store called _The Sonic Boom._

The song books are a comforting weight in Kim's backpack. Her loneliness is slightly assuaged by their presence, as if Ally's spirit is there with her... even though she knows for a fact that Ally is dead.

* * *

 _My mind is running empty_  
 _In this search for someone else_  
 _Who doesn't look right through me._  
 _It's all just static in my head_

* * *

The day she left her old home was pretty eventful. Kim had been standing on the roof of the Tower, the seventy-story building that she'd claimed as hers (after a period of months, clearing out the floors one by one).

She was about to jump off the top.

Her mind was in a dark place, after losing what she'd considered a close friend: a rare Atala butterfly that she'd named Freddy.

Kim found Freddy in the rooftop garden that had been on the Tower pre-apocalypse. Well, more accurately, Freddy found Kim. She'd been sitting in the garden practicing some chords on her ukelele and the tiny butterfly had landed on the head of the guitar. Mesmerized, she'd watched in fascination as he stood stone-still on one of the tuners. For a while, human and insect observed each other. Then Kim moved her finger forward, and he'd climbed onto it.

Freddy hung around for a while. Kim found a book on butterflies in the library a few floors below the roof and discovered his species ( _Eumaeus atala florida_ ) his approximate wingspan (only one and a half to two inches!) where he liked to hang out, and what he ate. It was strange because none of the plants his species normally ate were in the rooftop garden, but he stayed anyway. She held entire conversations with the little guy, guessing at his responses and reacting accordingly.

Then one day, a couple months after they'd met, Kim was sitting in the garden reading. Freddy had alighted on top of her book, and she'd smiled and stroked his wing gently before going back to what she was reading. After a while, she'd noticed that he wasn't moving at all. She poked him and he fell over, right onto her page.

She'd cried for hours. Then, she'd torn apart the building searching for something suitable as a coffin for her small friend. She located a tupperware container in one of the old fridges, cleaned it out as best as she could with paper towels, then created a soft bed made of tissue paper and gingerly laid him down inside. Afterwards, she buried him in the garden near the spot she'd found him.

The next day she found herself standing on the edge of the roof. One step off. It was so easy. All she had to do was lift her foot and let herself drop, hopefully killing some of the undead bastards below with her fall. She wouldn't be lonely anymore.

* * *

 _Can anybody tell me why_  
 _I'm lonely like a satellite?_

* * *

But then, something really weird happened: she'd heard a noise.

Surprised, she'd paused and waited to see if it would get any louder. She wasn't sure which direction it came from, but she didn't even have to try and found out. The great mass of zombies below her had started shuffling towards the left, all off them drawn towards the noise. Seconds later, a bright red sports car whizzed by the Tower. Stunned, Kim watched as it drove off into the distance, the zombies following it in some sort of mass migration. Pretty soon, the streets were completely clear.

She'd bitterly thought that it was whatever twisted god was up there, telling her not to die yet because he still wanted to see her suffer. Despite this, she took her opportunity and left the building with little difficulty.

* * *

 _Cause tonight I'm feeling like an astronaut_  
 _Sending SOS from this tiny box_  
 _And I lost all signal when I lifted off_  
 _Now I'm stuck out here and the world forgot_

* * *

The day Kim met Ally marked the end of a week of uneventful travel. That changed the moment she decided to investigate the crying. It had come from the remains of a public gymnasium. There were roughly a dozen undead milling around the parking lot, while four of them were clustered around the collapsed portion of the building. She steeled her resolved and crept up to the building, determined to save the first living human she'd encountered in a long time.

Peeking around the corner, she'd failed to notice the dead zombie at her feet. She tripped over an arm (an arm by itself. It wasn't attached to a body.) and landed right on top of the corpse, coming practically nose to nose to it.

After a moment of initial panic, she took in the dead person's features; it was a teenager, probably about her age, with red hair and a face strangely devoid of freckles. His half-lidded eyes may have been blue before they took on the milky sheen characteristic of all zombies.

She moved to get up, only to find her hand sinking into something squishy with a sickening _squelch!_. Her stomach had coiled with dread, but she looked down to investigate.

The teen's chest cavity had been entirely gouged out, and his organs strewn around him. _Her hand was submerged in a pile of his intestines_.

Freaking out, she'd barely contained a scream as she stood up and shook her hand frantically to _get his freaking organs off her._ The squishy, ropy mass had finally flown off her hand and smacked right into the head of one of the zombies trying to get into the gym. The portly zombie grunted, shaking her head. The organ slid out of her black curls.

Kim had froze, hoping it didn't see her, but it just went right back to snarling and trying to get at the crying girl inside the building. Kim took the opportunity to observe the many of the dead were trying to get in the gym. Along with the chubby girl, there were two other females. One was pale with a shock of red hair that went down past her shoulders. She appeared to be the owner of the arm Kim had tripped over. The other girl had brown hair and a caramel skin tone. The only male of the four looked similar to the last girl (though his hair was black instead of brown), making Kim think that they were siblings.

The blonde took a moment to steel herself, before approaching the four zombies.

* * *

 _Can I please come down,_  
 _'Cause I'm tired of drifting round and round_  
 _Can I please come down?_

* * *

"Ow, ow, _owowow,_ Kim, _stop._ "

Kim grunted, dropping the metal support beam she was attempting to lift up. "Ally, how are we gonna get you out of there?"

"...Kim..."

The blonde stared at the wall where she assumed Ally's face was. "No, Ally, I'm gonna get you out of there. Somehow..."

"I appreciate everything you're trying to do, Kim," Ally's voice said back. "But... I'm not gonna make it out. There's a wooden beam through my stomach. I'll probably die even faster if I try to get it out."

Tears came to Kim's eyes, and she angrily wiped them away. "So that's it?! You're just gonna _give up_?!"

"I'm not giving up," Ally said calmly. Considering the fact that she had been sobbing uncontrollably not two minutes before, the girl's voice was strangely steady. "I'm just... accepting it. Will you talk with me?"

Kim looked up, surprised long enough for another tear to slip down her cheek unbidden. "W-what?"

"Sit down. Talk with me until..." The girl trailed off.

"Okay." Kim sits down, leaning against a sturdy portion of the wall.

"So. Kim. What do you look like? I wanna be able to picture who I'm talking to."

"Well... I have blond hair. Brown eyes. Um... my friends used to tell me I look like that girl Skylar from that movie _Girl vs. Monster._ "

"Oh, that movie. I never got around to seeing it. Was it good?"

"Ugh, it was _sooo_ dumb! Disney got so freaking _stupid_ in its last years."

"I know! Like, _Live and Maddie? Jessie_? What was up with that?!"

" _Thank_ you! Someone that agrees with me..."

They talked about anything that came to their heads. It turned out Ally listened to Z Survivor Radio, but never understood where Kim's signoff ("don't die, butterfly") came from. Kim explained the story of her deceased butterfly. In return, Ally told her about how she and her friends Dez, Trish, and Austin met up with four other teens that had been visiting from Chicago when the apocalypse hit. (Kim strongly suspected that Ally's friends were a part of the undead she'd killed, but she hadn't dared voice this suspicion to her new friend.)

And just like that, they were instantly best friends.

* * *

 _I'm deafened by the silence_  
 _Is it something that I've done?_  
 _I know that there are millions_  
 _I can't be the only one who's so disconnected_

* * *

"Hey, Kim, if you ever find Austin could you tell him that... that I still love him? I never stopped, I don't think... Did I ever tell him?" Her voice had become tired, and her words were a lot more halting than when they first started talking, as if each one took conscious effort to form. Kim knew Ally was fading away, but she hadn't wanted to accept it.

"Yeah... yeah, of course. I'll tell him."

"Cool." Kim heard the smile in the other teen's voice. "And, uh... you said you had my song books... Right?"

"Mm-hmm." The blonde didn't trust her voice.

"Could you find... _Safe and Sound_ by Taylor Swift?"

Kim took a shuddering breath and a moment to recollect her emotions before answering. "Yeah... you want me to play it?"

"Play it?"

"I have a ukelele. I got it from this store called the 'Sonic Boom.'"

Ally laughed, though she hadn't explained why. "Awesome... If you could please play it... I'd appreciate it..."

Kim hadn't even needed to open the book. _Safe and Sound_ had been one of the first songs she taught herself how to play on the ukelele. She started playing, manipulating the strings with a practiced ease. When Ally started singing along in a weak but beautiful voice, silent tears made their way down Kim's face. If they'd known each other before the apocalypse, they probably would have been best friends.

Ally's voice faded completely before she finished the last verse of the song. Kim cried openly, knowing the other girl was and finishing the last verse for her.

 _"You and I'll be safe and sound..."_

* * *

 _It's so different in my head.  
_ _Can anybody tell me why  
_ _I'm lonely like a satellite?_

* * *

The days after Ally's death were a blur. Kim doesn't know how she ended up in this gas station, or when she ate all her food, or when exactly she'd acquired the new bloodstains on her clothes and backpack. She knows she went on a bit of a reckless, grief-driven rampage, killing every zombie in her sight. It's a miracle she didn't get herself killed.

After she sent out her little "distress call" she just gave up, curling up into a ball and moving herself as far away from the zombies as she could get. It's not like anyone's coming for her. She was so stupid to think that there was anyone else out there listening to her dumb little "broadcasts." Who was she kidding? Herself. Tears stream down her face silently, uncontested, though her eyes stare ahead of her blankly.

Her interactions with zombies while she lived on the Tower were minimal. Sitting up there, on the rooftop, it was easy to delude herself into thinking that there was still hope out there, that people were still alive. She had fantasized about hardy little communities of survivors that loved DJ Snowflake and Z Survivor Radio. It was so _different_ in her head.

Absently, she wonders how long after she's dead the zombies will continue to try and get at her. Will they leave when her body goes cold? Will they lost interest when she herself joins their ranks? What will _she_ do after they leave? Just sit there, forever tortured by a hunger that could never be assuaged? Will her zombie self deteriorate without any human flesh to consume?

* * *

 _'Cause tonight I'm feeling like an astronaut_  
 _Sending SOS from this tiny box_  
 _And I lost all signal when I lifted off_  
 _Now I'm stuck out here and the world forgot_

* * *

She doesn't hear when the bell previously use to denote the arrival of customers goes off. She doesn't notice as the moans of the undead attempting to reach her cut off abruptly, one by one. She doesn't even notice when the door to her prison and sanctuary is unlocked and opened.

She _does_ however, notice the hand that taps her should her. In a flash she has the intruder pinned up against the wall behind her with her daggers ready to sever their throat, because if she's going to become one of these undead bastards she's at least going to go down swinging—

"Woah!"

Kim frowns. She'd never met a talking zombie before. Then again, she's never _killed_ a talking zombie before, but there's a first time for everything—

"Oh my god... _Kim?!_ "

She freezes. She _knows_ that voice, doesn't she? She examines the person she has pinned down; longish brown hair, a freckle on either cheek... handsome, but she doesn't know him. She realizes that the two of them aren't the only ones in the room, and she slowly turns her head. There's a blonde guy— _isn't that Austin Moon?!_ — and a brunette with friendly eyes. The last person is...

"...Milton?"

The last time she saw Milton was at school. His father had called him saying that Mrs. Krupnick was in the hospital after getting attacked by some psycho that bit her. This was before zombies were really known, before people realized that bites were the method of transmission, before people knew there wasn't a cure. Milton had been called to the front office for his dad to pick him up. He'd sent her a worried glance as he left the classroom, and Kim gave him what she thought was a reassuring smile.

She thought he'd died. But clearly he hadn't.

"Kim... wow." He chuckles breathlessly. "You're alive! I never thought I'd see you again—"

Kim's attention abruptly snaps to the teen below her when he shifts. Everyone in the room (including herself) is surprised at the small growl that escapes her throat, but then she doesn't care because she's not just going to sit here and let this undead freak devour her—

"Woah, woah, woah," Milton's voice says, snapping her out of her murderous mindset again. "Kim, that's Jack. He's not gonna hurt you."

"Well, if she doesn't move these daggers from my neck—"

"Jack, shut up," Milton deadpans. His voice softens, but Kim keeps her gaze focused on the person in front of her. "He's an idiot, but he's alright. Trust me."

'Jack' rolls his eyes, huffing impatiently. "Are you gonna let me go or not?"

After another second of hesitation, Kim backs off.

* * *

 _Can I please come down,_  
 _'Cause I'm tired of drifting round and round_  
 _Can I please come down?_

* * *

"Okay, what is _up_ with you?!"

"What's up with _me?_ That's hilarious. Blondie doesn't get her way and suddenly everything is my fault."

"You don't even _get_ it, do you?! Dina could have _died_ today because of your reckless stunt!"

"Yeah, well it worked didn't it? I got the food!"

"They're at each other's throats _again_?" Austin says, walking up to Milton and Dina, who are observing Kim and Jack's squabble with something akin to amusement.

"Yeah," Milton and Dina respond in sync.

"We've barely been back for more than ten seconds," Austin says.

Milton shrugs. "I know."

"It's like you don't even _care_ that we're a _team_!"

"I love the fact that you feel the need to remind me that we're a 'team.'"

"I'm confused, weren't they just talking about Dina?"

Dina shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"They're like an old married couple," Austin says.

"Except that there's never any making up afterwards," Milton responds.

"You're so freaking selfish! You don't care about anyone but _yourself_."

"Right, and who was the 'selfish' one that got your sorry self out of that gas station? Sitting there crying like a little baby, as if you're the only person in this world with problems."

Milton frowns. Should he stop them? Their argument was getting uncomfortably heated...

Kim sucks in a breath, and it may be just Milton but are those tears in her eyes? "You _jerk._ I had to sit and _listen_ to a friend _die_ and I couldn't do a thing to help—"

"Ha!" Jack laughs harshly. "You just _admitted_ how _useless_ you are! And why are you so whiny? Haven't we _all_ lost people? You're not the only victim here!"

"Jack, come on, man," Austin says softly, putting a hand on the brunet's shoulder, but Jack shrugs him off.

"God, you're such an _asshole,_ " Kim says, angrily wiping away the tear that escapes from her eye. "I can only imagine how it must have been for your parents, having to live with someone like _you_ everyday."

Austin, Milton, and Dina's eyes simultaneously widen, and they exchange worried glances.

Jack narrows his eyes, getting up in the blonde's face with his voice dangerously low. "My parents are _dead,_ you bitch."

"Aww, looks like I hit a nerve," Kim says, putting a hand over her heart and feigning sympathy. She shrugs. "I don't blame them. I would have killed myself, too."

* * *

 _Now I lie awake and scream, in a zero gravity_  
 _And it's starting to weigh down on me._  
 _Let's abort this mission now_  
 _Can I please come down?_

* * *

"Oh, I didn't know someone else was up here. I'll just—"

"Nah, it's alright. You can stay."

Kim hesitates, unsure, but Austin seems friendly enough so she goes and sits down next to him. Both teens' legs dangle off the edge of the rooftop.

"I'm up here most nights." He chuckles. "I'm a bit of insomniac. The stars are a nice distraction, though."

Of the four teens that had rescued her the week before, Kim had interacted with Austin the least. She doesn't really know much about him. Well, besides the fact that he's _Austin Moon._ But all the "spoiled pop star" stereotypes she'd kinda been expecting were unfounded. Austin is really nice, albeit distant, as if there's a perpetual cloud of sadness hanging over his head. Unlike Milton and Dina, Kim has no idea how Austin ended up in the group.

"What you said to Jack the other day really wasn't cool."

Kim peeks at him out of the corner of her eye to watch his expression. His tone holds no judgement; it's simply factual, as if he's stating the weather or telling her her hair is blonde. He's not even looking at her. He's on his back, staring up at the stars with a content expression.

"I know, he just..." Kim sighs. "Any sign of him?" She lies on her back as well.

"Nope," Austin responds simply. Jack took off after he and Kim's argument. No one's seen him for a couple days. They think he's going to come back at some point because he left his stuff, but each passing day marks an increased possibility that he's no longer alive.

The thought tears at Kim.

"I'm a horrible person, aren't I?" Kim says softly.

Austin shrugs, not making her feel any better. "You don't know how his parents died. If you did, I doubt that you would've said what you did."

An icy dread shreds through Kim's conscience, but she asks the question anyway. "What happened to his parents?"

"His mom committed suicide not long after the apocalypse began. She bit his dad after she turned. Jack had to kill them both."

Kim sits up abruptly. "Oh my god. Are you serious?"

Austin nods.

 _"I don't blame them. I would have killed myself, too."_

Austin, perhaps sensing the guilt ripping the girl apart, starts talking again. "I have regrets, too. We all do."

Kim is grateful for the distraction from what a horrible person she is. She lies back down on her back."Like what?"

"I left my friends when they needed me and now they're all probably dead."

"What do you mean?"

The other blonde's voice sounds strangely hollow, as if attempting to distance himself from the memory. "We were camped out at this old gymnasium. I left with a friend to go scout for supplies. When we came back, there'd been an explosion. The part of the gym we were living in had completely collapsed, and there were zoms everywhere."

Kim is looking at him sympathetically, but he is still staring at the night sky stoically. "The two of us tried to get in to see if they were all right but we got separated and there were so many zombies... I had to kill my best friend... after that I just ran."

Suddenly it clicks. "Austin?"

"Yeah?"

 _"If you ever find Austin could you tell him that... that I still love him?"_

"Did you... did you know a girl named Ally?"

This time, Austin is the one sitting up abruptly, but he's excited. "Yeah! She's my... we are..." He trails off, before looking at her with a hopeful expression. This is the most emotion she's ever seen from him. "Do you know what happened to her? I've gone out looking but I've never found her, or any of my other friends. I've kinda avoided the gym, though..."

Kim, not quite ready to dash the hope sparkling in his eyes, stalls. "What were your other friends like? What did they look like? I may have met them. "

If Austin thinks this is a weird question, he doesn't show it. "Oh. Well, there were four of my group that were visiting from Chicago when the apocalypse hit." He unknowingly mirrored Ally's words almost exactly. "Ty and Rocky are brother and sister. He's older by a couple years. Both of them are kinda tall, with like tannish or caramely-colored skin." He laughs at his own awkward phrasing. "That sounded kinda weird. But he's got black hair and she's got brown."

 _'Check and check,'_ Kim thinks sadly, matching his descriptions up with the two zombies trying to get at Ally that Kim thought were siblings.

He went on to describe the redheaded girl and the chubby brunette, and even the dead redheaded male that Kim had tripped over. He also described another guy, though. Deuce didn't match the description of any zombie that Kim saw there. It's possible that he was one of the zombies wandering around in the parking lot, but Kim was hopeful he survived.

"Ally..." Austin's voice got softer when he said her name. There was a certain... _tenderness_ there that made Kim suspect that Ally's feelings were reciprocated. It only made her sadder that she hadn't been able to save the other girl.

Austin moves away and lies on his back again. He closes his eyes, as if picturing her face in his head. "Ally's the most beautiful girl I've ever met. No offense to you of course but... Ally's amazing. She's got the softest brown hair and these big brown doe eyes that I just get lost in and I love making her smile and..."

Kim is startled when she realizes that he's crying.

"You didn't see Deuce there, right?"

He doesn't look at her, but he figured it out somehow. Did she even say anything?

"I could tell by your face," he says quietly, as if in answer. "Which ones were... gone. I knew Dez was dead, I'm the one that had to kill him. But I didn't know about the others. Please tell me you..." His voice breaks, and Kim understands what he's asking.

"I found them just a couple days before you guys got me from the gas station. And yeah," Kim responds. "Ally, though... she was trapped inside the gym. She'd gotten really hurt, and I couldn't help her out. I think she may have turned..."

"Okay." Kim isn't sure if she should be worried by how steady his voice now is.

After a silence, she says, "She loved you. She said she never stopped loving you. She wasn't sure if she ever told you..."

Another silence.

"I didn't see anyone there that looked like Deuce. He may still be alive."

Still nothing. Kim debates leaving him to mourn in private. She finally goes, getting up to leave, when his voice stops her.

"Thank you."

"I... you're welcome." She doesn't deserve his thanks. With a heavy heart, she walks back to the room she shares with Dina.

Austin's muffled sobs bring her self-loathing to an all-time high.

* * *

 _So tonight I'm calling all astronauts_  
 _All the lonely people that the world forgot_  
 _If you hear my voice come pick me up_  
 _Are you out there? 'Cause you're all I've got!_

* * *

"...Jack?"

The brunet doesn't look up at her soft call. He simply continues to sit there, staring blankly at the two makeshift gravestones in front of him. He completely ignores the zombies surrounding the fence, trying to get at him. Austin, Milton, and Dina begin to dispatch them all, knowing that it's up to Kim to apologize to Jack.

The blonde sits next to the other teen. When Milton remembered that Jack mentioned his neighborhood wasn't far from their base, the four of them went running to see if he was at his house. He was, sitting wordlessly in his backyard. In front of him were two wooden crosses that looked hastily constructed. The four didn't have to be told; these were graves that Jack made for his parents.

"She did kill herself because of me, you know," he suddenly says, surprising them all. Dina had paused with her "Z-Whacker" (a baseball bat with nails in the end) embedded in a zombie's head. "I'd been attacked by zombies on my way home. I came in and she saw all the blood and thought I'd gotten bitten. She couldn't stand the thought of having to watch me turn."

His voice was rough, as if he hadn't had anything to drink in a long while. Kim realizes that he may not have moved from this spot since getting here, and he'd been missing for four days...

"Jack, I—"

"Stop. You were mad, I was mad. We both said some pretty screwed up stuff. I was a jerk. Intentionally putting someone else in danger was not an okay thing to do, even if it did score us some food."

At a loss for what to say next, Kim pleadingly looks at Milton. He shrugs, as if to say _"you're on your own."_

Jack stands. "We should go. Deuce is gonna start blaring the zombie alarm in—" He checks a watch that Kim didn't even know he had. "—about half an hour."

Austin and Dina whip around at the same time. "Deuce?!" they exclaim simultaneously. They exchange mirrored looks of surprise. "You know him? Yeah, he's (a friend/my boyfriend). Woah, really?" Minus the minor discrepancy, it's a bit eerie how their words matched up exactly.

Jack is surprised as well. "Wow. Um... do you guys wanna go see him?"

" _YES!"_

* * *

 _And tonight I'm feeling like an astronaut_  
 _Sending SOS from this tiny box_  
 _And I lost all signal when I lifted off_  
 _Now I'm stuck out here and the world forgot_

* * *

Kim almost cooed at Deuce and Dina's reunion.

Deuce had looked up when the five teens entered the room. Dina was the first to go in, and the look on his face when he saw her... And then they'd kinda just stood there for a couple moments, like they couldn't believe they were seeing each other again. Dina snapped out of it first, running forward. Deuce got out of his seat and ran towards her. They met in the middle of the room and kissed, Deuce's arms going around Dina's waist tightly and hers snaking around his neck.

"You, you're okay, you're alive!" Deuce says, his voice almost breathless.

"I'm okay, Deucie. You are, too!" She buries her face in his neck, laughing and crying at the same time.

"Dina..." Deuce trails off, his voice sounding sad. He notices Austin standing behind Dina and grins. "Austin, man, you're alive, too?!"

"Yeah. The others didn't make it, though," the blonde male responds.

"Aw, man. That... that sucks."

"Deucie, what are you doing here?" Dina asks.

All traces of happiness are gone from Deuce's expression. "I was putting the finishing touches on the explosives I got set up throughout this entire neighborhood."

"Explosives?" Milton says, speaking up for the first time. "What for?"

"To kill as many zombies as possible."

Kim frowns. "But don't you have to be here to set them off?"

"Yeah."

Dina pulls away from her boyfriend. "Babe... you wouldn't survive that!"

Deuce looks at her sadly with a face full of pain. "I know. That's kinda the point."

"But why..."

Jack answers. "He got bitten a couple days ago."

* * *

 _'Cause tonight I'm feeling like an astronaut_  
 _Sending SOS from this tiny box_  
 _To the lonely people that the world forgot_  
 _Are you out there? 'Cause you're all I've got!_

* * *

While Austin, Deuce, and Dina were having a moment, Jack explains what Deuce's intentions are to Kim and Milton.

Deuce, hours after he'd been bitten, decided that he was going to take as many zombies down with him as possible. He got a bunch of car alarms and rigged them to go off all at the same time. There's one in front of every couple houses. He'll set them off, and keep the alarms going for a while in order to draw in as many zombies as possible. Then, when he feels like there's enough of them, he'll set off the multiple bombs he'd set up in houses, cars, and in yards, hopefully decimating a good chunk of the undead population.

"That's amazing," Milton says softly. "But where's he going to be?"

"In one of the houses, right near a bomb. He... he doesn't want to turn into one of them."

Kim looks over at the corner where Deuce, Austin and Dina had huddled up in. Dina and Deuce are practically joined at the hip, never straying more than a foot away from each other since meeting again. Austin isn't as close to Deuce as the brunette is, but he's still near the Latino. "That's so sad."

Milton and Jack follow her gaze. "He'd scavenged all the houses beforehand," Jack continues. "All the food and useful supplies that he found are loaded in a pickup truck about a half a mile away. He's pretty sure it's out of range of all the exploding that's going to go down."

"Why hasn't he turned yet?" Milton asks.

"The zombie that got him was a baby," Jack responds. "Couldn't have been more than a year old. He hesitated, and it bit him on the ankle. The bite was small, though, barely even broke the skin. Deuce wasn't sure it infected him until he seriously considered taking a chunk out of his own arm, just to see how it tasted. Anyway, since the bite was so small, it's spreading a lot slower than normal."

"He's dying slowly," Milton says. "God, that must be agony. I was there when Jerry..." He trails off, then clears his throat. Jerry's death is news to Kim, but Milton kept going. "Yeah, and it was really painful, and he was dead in couple hours. For that to be drawn out for who knows how long..."

About an hour later, they're saying goodbye. Deuce wanted a solid hour or so to keep the alarms blaring, drawing in as many zombies as possible. He also wanted to make sure the five teens had enough time to get to the truck (which was fully functional, apparently; he'd fixed up the engine, as well as zombie-proofed it) and drive to a safe place.

"It was nice meeting you, man," Milton says, giving Deuce one of those masculine one-arm-pat-on-back hugs.

"You, too," Deuce responds, flashing the redhead a small smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

Kim, Jack, and Austin say their goodbyes as well. The four start to leave to give Dina and Deuce their privacy. The couple is already making out before the others are even out the door, but Kim doesn't blame them.

It's the last time they'll ever get to.

* * *

 _Can I please come down?_  
 _'Cause I'm tired of drifting round and round  
_ _Can I please come down?  
_ _Can I please come down?  
_ _Can I please come down?_

* * *

"It's beautiful," Dina says softly.

Milton (the only one of the five teens that had an actual driver's license pre-apocalypse) had driven up to a cliffside overlooking the ocean. Realizing he'd made a wrong turn somewhere, he'd been about to back up and leave, when Dina commented on the sunset.

There were no zombies in the area, so Milton parks the truck parallel to the edge, and the five teens got out of the car to watch the sunset. Austin, Milton, and Dina sit side by side with their backs against the vehicle behind them. Kim and Jack sit in the back of the pickup.

"I can't remember the last time I did something as calm as watching a sunset," Austin says quietly.

"It's weird that something like this can even still exist," Kim comments. She didn't realize that anything of beauty could have survived the end of the world, untainted by the undead.

"Well, we're here, aren't we?" Jack says. "We're still alive and kicking, and I'm sure we're not the only ones."

"Yeah, but for how long?" Milton asks. "There were seven _billion_ people on this planet. The living are definitely outnumbered, and our numbers are dwindling as we speak."

"But look at that," Dina says, gesturing to the sunset. "How can something like that exist if there isn't any hope?"

"Well, that's easy. Molecules in the atmosphere—"

"Shhhhhh," Austin says, halting the redhead's flow of words by covering his mouth. "You're taking this way too literally. Just... enjoy it."

Milton takes the blonde male's advice and falls silent, and they watch as the yellow ball of light shrink down behind the horizon.

* * *

 **So, there's that. :D Hope you guys liked it. It made me kinda sad to write some parts... sorry 'bout that.**

 **Now that it's summer, hopefully I have a bit more freedom to work on writing, but nothing's concrete. My summer's gonna be pretty busy, too.**


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